Posted on: Saturday, September 7, 2002

Bacon makes for great-tasting retro appetizers

A long time ago in a social milieu far, far away, when cholesterol had not yet been discovered and every middle-class home came equipped with a cocktail shaker, an entire class of appetizers was built around the idea of wrapping something good with something better — bacon. Rumaki, angels on horseback, devils ditto...

Sara Perry's new book, "Everything Tastes Better with Bacon" (Chronicle, $18.95) brought this back to mind and, guess what, this is still one of the most delicious and easy-to-make hors d'oeuvre ideas around.

You need a buncha bacon strips, cut in half, rounded cocktail toothpicks and any of the following: shucked oysters (sprinkled with a little lemon juice and/or a little Tabasco sauce), pitted prunes, pitted green or Spanish olives, bite-sized pieces of chicken, pineapple chunks, artichoke hearts, water chestnuts, tiny dogs or sausage chunks or a small hunk of French bread.

Wrap the bacon around the goodie, place on a foil-lined baking sheet and broil or bake at 450 degrees until the bacon is crispish.

Hint: Prunes sound dumb, but they taste fabulous and you will drive people crazy trying to figure out what they are.